It’s a bit unfortunate that this is presented in the context of personal ego wars – unfortunate, but understandable, considering that Oracle has been on a warpath with HP ever since former CEO Hurd got ousted, in fact they launched a global manhunt for incoming HP CEO Leo Apotheker. But ego clashes make good stories. 🙂

That said, the real story is that According to Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research “by moving to Salesforce, HPQ may be saving 40-50% over ORCL Siebel.” So egos aside, it’s a pure business decision, and not a surprising one. (Well, talk about surprise and personalities, the “other CRM” system not even mentioned is SAP – long time Alma Mater of current HP CEO Apotheker. Hm… I suspect economics win over loyalty)